Hey , Yes I know PostalSoft MergePurge is very fast, I hope you ran that MP local to your HD, instead of network. To make it run faster really depends what are the keys you are looking for, and one thing I have notice is if the address components (addr1, addr1, city, state) are all upper case you get an improvement on speepd, the same with ACE, sort your list by zip code and that also speeds up the matching.

In regards of our North-South splits, we use Perl to do it, do not ask me why our manager liked it a lot and we use it to do the splits, even though I had crated a VFP splits program that work quite well, but anyways she wanted "portability" ja, (like people here is going to start using Linux desktops anytime soon), anyways, it is slow, but that's what she wanted, .

WE use a file.txt as a driver for all of the PostalSoft jobs, we called Kitlist.txt , in this file we write info tab delim, of the specs of the job
jobno, postal specs (standar A, weight, etc) and the number of splits.

Perl opens up this file and creates the ACE and PST bat files, separately.
then you can run one at the time.
On the PST bat file, once presort is complete the split program takes over
and when it is done, postal and ace reports are printed.

that is basically how we have done it..the major acomplishment is training time
for new "programers", now we have a "blue book" of procedures on how to set up jobs and run them, the rest is pure FoxPro databse work


mark oliva





>Thanks for the offer Mark.
>I'm curious about Double Take. I use Merge/Purge on 4.5 million record table and it takes about 2 hours. One meg records takes about a half hour. Anything to speed up the process would be of tremendous help. I'll also have to check out Pres for our continuous, although we're looking at getting rid of our Oce's.
>We haven't done any Perl scripts. I'd be quite interested in what you've done there.
>We've got a prog in FPW that does north south splits and segments in one shot. That's going to be an interesting conversion to VFP7.
>I'd also be very interested in your batch files because of the difference in batch operation in Win2k.
>I'll be writing to you via e-mail shortly.
>We're a bit slow right now, expect pick-up shortly. One of our clients had offices in WTC. Didn't hurt our business much but obviously left us stunned.
>
>Pete
>
>
>>Hello Pete,
>>
>>yes I do use PostalSoft produc suite,
>>I use ACE and Presort. for merge purge we use Double Take from the
>>peoplesmith guys, nice little program, very fast with fox tables
>>I have done merge purges of tables of 900k with it and very impressed
>>with the results.
>>For laser printing we use Pres from Prinsoft.com a nice layout program
>>for the Oce laser continous and sheet feed laser machines.
>>
>>I have used Postal Soft with VFP 6 and create some nice perl scripts (on windows) to automate the creation of the ACE and PST files that Postal Soft needs out of a txt file that I call kitlist.txt
>>
>>and then through a bat file I run all of my apps and even I do north south
>>splits.
>>
>>you can email me privately for more info at maor71@onebox.com
>>
>>
>>and how is the direct mail field there in NY ?
>>
>>Here in CA , Los Angeles area is a very busy cycle these days ..
>>
>>let me know
>>
>>mark oliva
>>
>>
>>
>>>PostalSoft makes apps that verify postal details.
>>>PWACE looks at addresses and verifies good addresses and flags bad.
>>>MERGE/PURGE looks for duplicates between table(s) to avoid duplicate mailing.
>>>PRESORT adds proper zip+4, creates tray labels, bundle number, prices denpending on type of mail being checked.
>>>
>>>PrintNet from GMC is a program similar(?) to Quark Xpress. It uses tables to change variable values inside its files. It produces files that can be used by the large Xerox printers.
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hi Pete,
>>>>What is Postalsoft and PrintNet?
>>>>
>>>>If you are looking to convert a old FPW2.x to VFP7 you are in for a good ride.
>>>>I suggest you use a framework and salvage the old code in it.
>>>>This way you will have a good application that will work with VFP7.
>>>>
>>>>>Hi all,
>>>>>We are a Direct Mail Printing firm. We're just switching from FPW2.6a to VFP7 and are having more than a few problems.
>>>>>
>>>>>Are there any UT people out there using ACE, PRESORT, MERGE/PURGE from PostalSoft that could let me know how to properly integrate PostalSoft into the VFP environment. The other programmers here are very unhappy about having to learn a totally new product and are very concerned about any interactions that may have changed. Are there any pitfalls out there? Are there any procedures we have to follow? Will PostalSoft take the VFP7 files directly or do we have to convert back to FPW2? Is there a good way to run the PostalSoft programs from VFP that don't pass thru DOS?
>>>>>
>>>>>All of the above questions also apply to PrintNet from GMC. In particular getting PrintLayout to accept VFP files without having to go thru several conversion steps?
>>>>>
>>>>>TIA,
>>>>>Pete